Jul 13 14:04:55 108 PA - More Meeting With the New Kid, and a Little Recruiting, Too

From Chronicles

Jul 13 14:04:55 108 PA.

KINGSDALE CITY MUSEUM (GARDEN)

Gabriel had been leaving only a few minutes ago, but he seems to have returned to his previous marble bench, retrieving a second sandwich from one of his small packs. He seems to enjoy the babbling and bubbling of the fountain, and the peaceful way that the plants seem to sway even though the wind itself seems absent. A small vertically-flipping pad of paper and a standard wooden pencil are sitting at his side, on top of his outsized briefcase.

Darlos is walking down the street, leaving the library with a bag full of books. He turns to walk toward the garden and spots Gabriel with the pad and pencil. "No way, you draw?" The teen asks as he leans over to see exactly what Gabe is drawing on his pad.

Gabriel's eyes move up to pinpoint the voice, but otherwise he seems content to enjoy a homemade meal. He's certainly polite enough to chew and swallow before speaking, of course. His mother would have risen from the dead to slap him if he didn't. "Hey, Darlos," he says with a twang. "If by 'draw' you mean either stick figures, or a battle plan, then yes. Art? No. I write things down so that I don't have to make an effort to remember them later." Tap-tap goes a finger on the half-empty pad. He then waves over to the empty spot on his bench. "Welcome to sit, if you'd like. Still getting your bearings?"

Darlos takes Gabe up on his offer and takes a seat next to him, grabbing something a bit more exotic from his knapsack. Then gathers some metal utensils digging in to the mush. He then looks over the notes and nods slowly, "Yea...I suppose you could say that. Noticing how slow it is around this place. I always hear about the insanity that’s outside these walls, but I never feel a rift split or someone doing any horrible mojo with the lines. Seems pretty peaceful to me." He has slightly less manners than his friend, he at least turns away while he is eating and talking.

The older man smirks in a friendly manner. "There's trouble with peace and quiet? I certainly much prefer it that way. I've had a lifetime of violence shaded by happiness. Trust me, this is good." Gabriel waves a hand around to indicate the museum, the city in general. He continues. "I really don't know magic. It's something that I may never understand. Houdini was a magician and did tricks, but people like you? You actually do magic. It's rather like me trying to explain electricity to those in medieval times, I expect. As is the technology," he quickly adds, smiling as he does so.

Darlos hrms to himself and shrugs, "I guess I've never actually been asked that question." He considers for a moment and then looks at Gabe intently, "You actually got a question to ask or you want the whole thing explained? I mean, I’m suppose to be able to talk about this stuff and explain it. Madson made sure I could actually do this. If you want to get into the guild you gotta be able to do stuff like this."

Gabriel offers a smile and a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Sure, if you'd like to try. But just the abridged version to start with. The nuns told me that I was a slow learner." He taps his temple, winking, perhaps to indicate that sure, that was said, but may not be true. "I guess a magic guild is like any professional organization. Masters, pupils, prospects and pledges? You'll have to tell me about Madson some time. He sounds to be an important person in your life - but I don't know much about your life, nor you mine, so perhaps the easy things should be tried first?" His tanned-from-use skin winks a little, and he does ask flatly, "Please, I would like to know what you can do. I try to keep up with the interesting population of the city." Another wide grin, because he does that fairly often.

Darlos nods slowly, "Yea, Me and Madson spent almost me entire life together. He would be my mentor, Master to me, as the apprentice." Darlos then stands and thinks for a moment. "Well Magic...That’s a broad topic, but I guess there’s a simple and complex explanation. The easy, is that after the big cataclysm, the lines came back. Realize though they were there before, we just couldn’t see or feel them. So they appear and then we humans felt a pull. Well some of us did. So, once we feel this pull we then kind of tried to pull back. After we did that...something happened. That was like magic."

Gabriel watches and listens very carefully before smiling slightly and chuckling. "Okay, if you say so. The only giant lines of power that I ever knew existed were the ones for the national power grid. So.. skipping the actual fuel for your fire, the bullets in your magazine, what do you do with it, particularly Darlos? I've known a few mages, but most of them seem to have a rather narrow set of abilities, at least as far as I understand the grand scheme of what is possible." He opens his hands, chews his sandwich and explains, "For instance, I can do just about everything that you'd need on the battlefield, and do all of it quite well. But... there are the absolute experts who might be in demolitions, or communications, that kind of thing."

Darlos hrms and nods. "Well, a lot of people back in the day used them for all kinds of stuff, just now we can pull A LOT harder. It's sort of like dipping a cup into water and pouring it into a mold. The more experience you have the better molds you can make and the larger amount of water you can handle and pour without spilling." Darlos then half considers, "Well, yea a lot of us learn the same thing. Conjuring armor to protect us, throwing fires, turning invisible, etc and that’s sort of the thing you gotta roll with. Realize though, it's infinite. As long as you can think of a mold, you can craft it. Myself, I do all the same, with a few extras. Mostly dealing with ley lines. They hold so much untapped power its insane."

Gabriel frowns. "Ley lines? Those glowing things that look like Ike's Interstate in neon form? Yeah, I guess they're big power lines," he ends with a chuckle. "Can you do much in the way of sneaking around unnoticed? Messing with minds? Getting people more inclined to talk? Also, not pissing them off and making them try to shoot you?" He seems to have something specific in mind, judging by the look in his eyes.

Darlos says, "Well, I guess I can do all of those. Well the messing with minds things isn’t so high on my list. Hiding yes, teleporting yes, seeing from far and doing all kinds of other things, yea. I learned a lot, why?"

"Oh, I'm doing some snooping tonight. Y'know, the good, old-fashioned un-enhanced-in-any-way snooping like I'm trained and experienced in." Gabriel waves to the teen. "Thought you might come along is all." With that, the two men devolve into pleasantries and eventually move along their own separate paths.